so, my friends, here at this historic institution, just let us remember, america was built by people who knew that our common interest was more important than our self interest. they were fearless in pursuit of a stronger, freer fairer nation. as barbara jordan famously reminded us, when the constitution was first written it left most of us here out. but generations of americans thought and marched and organized and prayed to expand the circle of freedom and opportunity. they never gave up, and they never backed down. and nearly a century ago, on this very day, after years of struggle, congress finally passed the 19th amendment to give women the right to vote in the united states. [applause] [cheering]

[applause] so that is -- that is the story of progress, courageous men and women, expanding rights, not restricting them. and today we refuse, we refuse to allow our country and this generation of leaders to slow or reverse america's long march toward a more perfect union. we all went to our children and our grandchildren to fight just as hard as those we came before us to march just as far, to organize just as well, to speak out just as loudly, and to vote every chance we get for the kind of future we want. that is what barbara jordan would do. that's what we should do in honor of her. thank you and may god bless you. [applause] [cheering]

[applause] >> on saturday, i will u.s. senator joni ernst held her inaugural roast and ride. the two party event honored veterans and included a nearly 40 mile motorcycle ride, followed by a pork roast and short speeches. one of the speakers was wisconsin governor scott walker "politico" -- took a jab at jeb bush, arguing the republican party needs a fresh face who draw significant contrast with likely democratic presidential nominee hillary clinton. here are the remarks by governor scott walker on saturday. this is about 10 minutes.

governor scott walker: hi! thank you. freedom. it endows our creators, defined by our constitution. the defendant, each and every day, by the men and women who probably wear the uniform of these united states. with all the veterans, would you stand or wave your hand for those who have served our country, are serving today, and add to them the families that are supporting them? [applause] i want to thank all of our veterans, but when i was out shaking hands, i saw a couple of

world war ii veterans. today, 71 years ago, was d-day. let's remember those that gave the ultimate sacrifice not just on that day, but all throughout our nation's history. let's just pause for a moment. thank you. and thanks for coming out. i had a lot of fun. harley davidsons are made just a few blocks from my home. so i want to thank your great senator, joining ernst, for giving me a chance -- joni ernst, for giving me a chance to ride today. thank you for keeping the rain away. i brought my ranger just in case, -- raingear just in case, but it is nice not to have to use it. i love a senator who knows how to castrate opaque, -- ride -- a pig, ride a hog and cut the

pork from washington dc. [applause] wouldn't it be nice to give her an ally in the white house? [cheering] [applause] you have a great team here in iowa. after this, i am going to run up to mason city and help chuck grassley out. you have branson and my good friend, kim reynolds. it is kind of funny, a little trivia, chuck grassley was once my state representative. you may not know this, but my father is a preacher. his first call was in colorado springs, colorado. in 1970, we moved to a small town 450 people called plainfield, iowa. and i was there from 1970 to 1977 and chuck grassley was my state representative. how about that? [applause] and he is just as honest today

as he was there. my father has long since retired, but every time chuck grassley comes on tv, he says, there is an honest man. thank you for sending a great team from iowa. [applause] now, we moved in 1977 when i was in third grade to another small town. i think back over the years and i had the great opportunity early on in life as a kid, my first job was washing dishes at the countryside restaurant. i later moved up to the big time when i started for the hamburgers at mcdonald's. i was flipping burgers in dolphin. my friend, paul ryan, was flipping burgers down the road in janesville. the only difference was his manager said he had to flip burgers in the back because he didn't have the skills to work the cash register. when i think about that growing up in that small town, like a

lot of small towns account to, we look back -- across the country, we look back and my dad was his -- a preacher and my mom was a secretary and a bookkeeper. we realized for them and my grandparents -- my grandparents on my moms side were farmers. they didn't have indoor plumbing until my mom would talk to high school. my dad's dad was a machinist for 42 years in rockford, illinois. i look back at my life and realize my -- myself or i did not inherit fortune or fame for my family. what we inherited was believe. [applause] that is the american dream! we need to stand up and we need people in washington who are going to fight so that every american can live america's dream. people who lead the entire country forward saying, everyone

who wants to work out, everyone who was the live by the rules and play by the rules should be able to live their piece of the american dream in this great country. [applause] and it certainly doesn't mean with more government. sometimes i listen to this president, you would think they measure success in government by how many people are depends on the government. we -- we, not just as republicans, but as americans -- we should measure success by just the opposite. by how many people are no longer dependent on the government. you see, we understand that true freedoms and prosperity does not come from the mighty hand of the government. they come from empowering the people to live their own lives through the dignity that is born of work, of work. i think about growing up in that

small town, i never remember one of my classmates say, i want to become dependent on the government. nobody side my yearbook saying, good luck becoming dependent on the government. we are one of the few places left in the world -- it doesn't matter what class you are born into, what your parents did for a living -- in america, the opportunity is equal for all, but the outcome is still up to each and every one of us. remember this. there is a reason why we take a day off to celebrate the fourth of july and not the 15th of april because in america, we celebrate our independence from the government, not our dependence on it. [cheering] [applause] and finally, on a day when we think about 71 years ago, we think about the money -- men and women. it is time in america that we start leading, not just here,

but around the world. we have under barack obama and the policies of hillary clinton more than any others because of her role as secretary of state we have a situation where in america, we have a president who draws a line in the sand and allows people to cross it. somebody who calls isis the jv squad. who calls iran a place we can do business with. think about that. when i grew up in that small town, i remembered the tree in front of our house. i connected to the nine, mice -- my brother and i would put yellow ribbons around that tree. because friends were in the marines. people like my friend were held for 144 days. that country has not changed. we should not change our position. [applause] now more than ever, in america,

we need a commander in chief who will tell it like it is and tell the people this country and those listening around the world that radical islamic terrorism is a threat and we are going to stand up and fight it. [applause] [cheering] we need a leader in america who will reaffirm that israel is actually an ally and start treating them as such. [applause] and we need a president in this country who is going to stand up and tell the american people what may be hard to say. and that this threat is it like the threat we faced in the cold war where containment is enough. instead, this is like a virus and if we don't take it out we are in trouble. so i believe -- i don't believe in opening engagements, but we need a president who says this is going to take a day or a week or maybe a year, but i would

rather take the fight to them instead of waiting until they take the fight to us. we need to lead from the front again in america. [applause] and so i appreciate you all being out here today. i know now more than anything, what has made this country great , what has made this exceptional, what has made us the greatest country in the history of the world is that all throughout our nation's history through times of crisis, what has made america amazing has been in those times of crisis, there have been men and women of courage who have been willing to stand up and think more about the future of their children and their grandchildren than they thought about their own futures. i would submit to you now this is one of those times. this is one of those moments in american history when we can look back and tell future generations, we were there, we stood up and he did the call, we

did what was required to make america great again. with your help, that is exactly what we are going to do. god bless you. thanks for coming out. god bless our troops. and god bless the united states of america. thank you. >> this weekend, the c-span cities tour is learning about the history and literary life of lincoln, nebraska. >> she was given almost every literary award possible in her lifetime before she died, except for the nobel prize. she was noted for some of her masterpieces like, "the professor's house" "lost ladies" and many others. in 1983, she made a will, one of which was that she did not want her letters to be published, but to be quoted whole or in part.

she left behind at least 3000 letters that we know about now. furthermore, in her will, she left one other important thing. she let -- left it to her and executives and trustees. they believe, as educational organizations, that it belongs to our shared heritage and we ought to know more about her. >> an important historical figure in nebraska's history was solomon butcher. >> solomon butcher was a pioneering photographer out in western nebraska. he took photos from about 1887, 1886 until the early 1890's of homesteaders and houses and was able to tell the story of this important development in american history. i am going to show you what of my favorite images of the

collection. it is actually a for the graph of the sisters. it is for sisters -- four sisters who each took a homestead claim. this shows women homesteaders, the first time that women could own land on their own. it didn't belong to their husbands, it didn't belong to their fathers, single women could own their own land. that was a really big deal with the homestead act. so each sister, each of these sisters, took a homestead. near their father's ranch. they each built a small house on the -- on the homestead, which is part of the homestead act. and they would take turns staying in each other's house and working each other's farm. so, the sisters really pulled together and -- and made it in nebraska.

>> watch all of our events from lincoln today at 2:00 p.m. eastern on "american history tv" on c-span3. >> maryland senator ben cardin held a community roundtable in his baltimore district friday on the rebuilding and recovery efforts following the protests and riots from freddie gray's death. they talked about ways to revitalize the community, provide sustained economic opportunities, and addressed reasons behind urban decay. this is about one hour 20 minutes. >> [indistinct chatter] >> ok, let me -- we are going to get started. first, let me thank -- for his leadership in our community. have been friends for a lot of

-- for a long time. he will always be part of the community, and we appreciate that. he has held many community leadership positions over the years and i thank you very much for that. it is great to be here at the elementary school. and we thank you all. we are, of course, in the neighborhood in which the tragic episodes concerning freddie gray occurred. let me just start, if i might to let you know that our federal delegation, which includes senator barbara mikulski, my teammate, captain of our team in the united states senate, along with our three members of the house, allies are coming, who did an incredible job, john and dutch. we have been strategizing as to what we can do to deal with the problems that we saw in baltimore. we love baltimore. we love our city.

i have lived all my life in baltimore. i am proud of the city. but we have got to move forward. what happened in baltimore could have happened in other cities. and we want to make sure that we take the right steps. so, there are two areas that we are trying to deal with in regards to what happened in baltimore. one is to restore the confidence of the community that the police are on their side. that the police in the community are working together. we have problems here. i have introduced some legislation to deal with it. we have to and profilingend -- end profiling in this community in america. there is not a single person here, and not a single person in the united states senate who hasn't had a second chance. so we have to recognize that our criminal justice system has not treated everyone fairly and we have to give people a helping

hand. so this past week, i was at second chance in baltimore which is incredible what they do to help people who have finished their prison sentences. they also do a great job on a commercial venture of taking old material from buildings and recycling them into new products that are good marketplace work. we have to do a better job in dealing with the police thinks -- belize, accountability justice, and safety. the second area is that we have to deal with the rebuilding of our city. yes, rebuilding businesses. many businesses were very badly damaged, destroyed by what happened. so we have to rebuild the businesses, but we also have to provide opportunities for people. and that means looking at what we are doing with our young people. do they have recreational facilities that are first-rate so that they can do what young people do? and that is, they like to do

things. they don't like to sit around. do we have summer jobs? we have opportunity? that is a huge part of what we are trying to do. i want to thank president obama. he convened a meeting in the white house for our federal congressional delegation with his team. and he had representatives from most of the federal agencies. we had the secretary of housing because we know that we have a housing problem. we know we have a housing problem in this community and many communities. we had the secretary of education there because it starts with good schools. we want good schools and opportunities for all of our children. we had the small business administration represented and the administrator has been in baltimore. you know the as a center open not too far from your that helps businesses get the help from the small business administration. the department of justice was there and we have questioned the

department of justice on second chance opportunities and getting some of those funds. baltimore. they were very actively engaged. and the department of health was there because one of the key things for a neighborhood to be able to be a place where you want to live, you have to have access to health care. we also want to make sure you are not a food desert. we need to make sure you have opportunities for healthy food choices. all those are important areas to have a healthy community and neighborhood. but you know what has come out the most that i have heard? this is the reason i wanted to be here. i think the reverend for making these arrangements. but what we what i -- what i heard more and more is that those of us who are in government take can make a difference, are we really listening to the community? whether it is the mayor of baltimore or the united states senator, are we really engaging the community?

you know there is not an endless amount of funds available. but are we making sure that we put those resources where the community wants it to be? that is one of the points that i just want to make sure that we reach out and talk to the people in the community and understand your priorities so that as we go forward, we are in sync. we are together. and we are using every opportunity we have to give hope and opportunity to people of our community. that is why i want to be here, to listen to your concerns. i can assure you, i will take it back to our team. not only our federal team, we have worked very closely with the mayor of baltimore, we have worked very closely with our state team, so we are all trying to work closely together. we are trying to point everybody together. we have the campaign the mayor has started with mark pryor at the head of it.

so the information you share today will go into that equation so that we can try to move our city forward in the most progressive way possible. in the last couple weeks, i have walked the streets, i have went into the businesses, i have been around here. and i know that people have an incredible amount of energy in this community. but there is a lot of frustration. and we want to know how we can work together so we all have a bright future. >> senator, first, it is an honor to have you here. we won't share with anyone how long we have known each other and how they different groups we have worked with, but it is an honor to have you here. and some of us have lived or so long, we remember these were houses before the school was actually built. so many of us go back quite a ways. matthew henson is in a neighborhood called winchester. we are a budding to what is

called -- and one of the biggest challenges we've had in the last few weeks since the civil unrest or rides, depending on what you want to call it, is that a significant number of our faith leaders, our elected officials really want -- were not cognizant of this area that we are in. many of them have gone to north pennsylvania. we don't -- but we have 14 businesses damaged during the riots just in our neighborhood. we actually have more businesses in our neighborhood ruined then sentelle did. but because the largest damage with did was done there, most everyone thought when they went up north -- and we have one of the properties here from them -- that the rest of the community had not been hit. we actually had 14 businesses but what made our situation a

little bit different and i guess a little more damaging as we have no food marketeer. we have not had a food market since october. ironically, one of the small convenience stores -- it wasn't a food market, it didn't have fresh vegetables, but it did have milk, orange juice, bread. that is one of the stores that also got hit. so what we found, and ironic enough, one of our officers -- the day after the riots, he came down the street and had a very perplexing look on his face. i have no him all my life. i am 64, he is 63. and i could just tell by his face something was terribly wrong. and he said, doc, things are so bad we don't even have a place to buy toilet paper. that is how desperate it got. the few stores we had were gone. we have and we have a good owner here -- we have a plethora of liquor stores. we actually have 50 liquor

stores in our neighborhood. on two parts of baltimore city -- only two parts of baltimore city have more liquor store than we do. we have a plethora of liquor stores, no food stores. we have candy stores, and what we found was two days after the riots, we didn't know where do we go, what do we do. and one of the greatest things that has happened to this community is meant to have the -- is matthew henson elementary school. they have almost been feeding people out of their food pantry. and the lady that is sitting on your other side is the one who does this day in, day out, month in, month out. how does she do it? i don't know. we need to quadruple her salary. but when we looked at it, we said, how do we get services? how do we get food? toilet paper, diapers for

children. when we have no place here to get it. none. what we were seeing was that everybody was in northern pennsylvania, but we had not seen anyone. it is not that we are pointing fingers or angry or upset, we just had to tell it like reside. we didn't see any of the elected officials here. we began to call the officials and say, and they said, we have been in your neighborhood. and they said, no, we haven't seen those stores. we didn't have a food market in the beginning, but then it was compounded by the riots. governor scott walker: what food -- senator ben cardin: what food store was here that closed? >> the stop shop and save that we had was on monro. if we get an opportunity to work today, you won't even know that a store was even there. the owner -- who has been a good community partner for us --

acquired the property. we cannot find any food markets to come in and replace them. just make it to land rights now. senator ben cardin: where is the closest supermarket? >> it is a little bit more than a mile. the health department has officially considered us to be in a food desert. what makes it even challenging is just the bare necessity. the few small stores we have run out so fast because there are some of the people trying to get to them. one of the biggest challenges -- and i equate them not in miles and costs. $7.50 one way. $15 two ways. whether you are using a cap -- cab or a hack. senator ben cardin: -- [indiscernible] >> and what members are saying is that $15 might be a nice meal for their family. we have been challenged to make

sure the neighborhood's open each other to the food markets. but the riots created even more problems. additional problems became because we are in the western police district. our homicide rates starting in march of this year put us back at number one. for being the most violent district in the city of baltimore. that got compounded. we are now on day 24, i think. we are close to day 24 where we have seven blocks within our neighborhood within water -- walking distance that have not had streetlights. and what we have had is -- i want to excuses, that is probably the best word i could use. the city blaming exelon. we, as neighbors, don't care who is responsible. 24 days later, we've had

portable police lights sitting in the block. never been on. never been on. we, still to the day, have never had all of those lights on. two days ago, we had four houses totally burned out. neighbors living in all four. it is like one tragedy after another. what we were able to discern and we have scheduled a major -- for the three communities that the health department has written two significant supports -- reports. what they did was they helped profile these three communities. we have set up a meeting for august 1 to bring all these communities together, but the data is really, really scary. 57% of the homes in our community make less than

$25,000. 55.7%, median house income, less than $25,000. compared to baltimore city, 33%. unemployment 21% of 16 years of age or older, compared to 11% in the city. as i go through some of the statistics, we are almost doubled here to what the negatives are in the rest of the city. 30% of the families here live in poverty. compared to 50% in baltimore city. 36.9% of our households are headed up by a single parent. were 26% are for the rest of the city. 43% of our residents between 16 and 64 are not in the labor force at all. that is almost half of our neighbors. education. 75% of our residents, 25 years

or older, have a high school degree or less. high school degree or less, compared to 50% of education and baltimore city. we look at just about every issue -- i'll call -- alcohol density -- it is just one data after another. and this is the report done by john hopkins and the baltimore health department. as a result of the data we have -- and the list goes on and on. our death rate compared to the rest of the city, 65.3% israel left expected to in this neighborhood, where baltimore city is 71.8%. avoidable death, 50% of the deaths in our neighborhood are avoidable. we are dying of things that could be handled. i don't want to bore you with all the data, but it is the data

that really substantiates how devastating health and life expectancy is in this community. and then when you add on things like no food markets increases in liquor stores, we have had a significant increase in stores selling what is called lucy. lucy buy cigarettes that you sell individually. you can go to too many stores around here where you can't buy them. and who is buying them? and people. we want to hit on a couple issues. we are one of the larger associations. we have a little more than 3000 residents. we cover a little bit more than 52 blocks. most of our houses are rowhouses . the most important thing to the neighborhood association is matthew henson elementary school and our children. that is our most important priority and we are so happy to

have our illustrious vice principal here, on my left side, and on your right side, the lady who handled the food pantry. and brotherly, we had five tractor-trailers full of food. we had just about every member of the ravens here, and had they not been here, we may still be trying to unload those tractor-trailers. within two hours, each day that we did it -- within two hours the food was gone. every day. every day. they are still doing this because our neighbors have nowhere to go. even little things like a diaper. you have no stores to go to. we have stores -- and i probably shouldn't say too much has been done legally here -- selling packages individually. they are breaking it open the packages and selling it. senator ben cardin: are there any pharmacies in the neighborhood? >> we have no pharmacies, no health center, no senior center.

we have a recreation center that has three rooms and one of those rooms is a computer room. senator ben cardin: it is run by the city? >> it is run by megan baltimore. -- mega baltimore. they do job, but what they have -- they do an excellent job, but what they have is three rooms. we don't have a high-quality food market. we are asking there be a reduction in our class sizes. these teachers -- senator ben cardin: i have been talking to some of the teachers and they were telling me the class size. it is too high. >> no community center. if we can't get to matthew henson, we don't have a state federal agency anywhere. whenever we have cap meetings, we either have to back-to-school to have them, or we have them in the street.

we are hearing that more money is coming in for summer jobs. our unemployment rate, including our children, doubles anything else in baltimore city. we are glad to hear something is coming. look at the communities first that are already unemployed. it is great that all of our kids get some summer jobs, but we are saying we are almost double the negatives of any other community. we have no mental health committee. we have in our area, the highest returning rate of former felons. we have one of the highest returning rates of folks that have been addicted. and they are our neighbors, our friends, our families, so we welcome them, but we are inundated with everything that is negative and not enough that is positive. senator ben cardin: this is very helpful. very helpful.

i want the councilman to have a chance here. i was going to share with you a study that was done in baltimore about two years, a year and a half ago. a study of life expectancy by that code. i don't know the left expectancy in the zip codes you mentioned but it varies by as much as 30 years. depending where you live. 30 years! that's a pretty dramatic difference. now, there is not one cause for that. some of it is violence. some of it is not have a healthy food. some of it is not having recreational facilities, not having health care facilities. there are reasons why we have serious issues. so we have to deal with that. what, i'm going to give you -- nick, i'm going to give you a chance. are you in our area? he represents the council. it is nice to have him here.

>> thank you, senator. we understand the structural issues that plagued this community. the one thing i keep leaning on his one-time rahm emanuel said the worst thing you can do is wake in crisis. i think the lens of the world was placed on baltimore a couple of weeks ago and there has been a lot of attention, a lot of focus, and it is important that we kind of lean on our state and federal folks to try and and -- end some of these decade-old issues. at the end of the day, these issues with created overnight but we have to make sure that we are putting the right plans in place to try and eradicate and change the directory -- trajectory. my hat off to this community because they continue to fight. they don't allow anything to go unanswered. they try to hold everyone accountable to deliver services and they are the type of community we need throughout the city of baltimore.

in this area, too, we know that the statistics are significantly damning, especially some of the severities around health and employment and all the critical things of having a healthy community. but i think there is also a lot of positive that we can try to build off of, like the metro. not many communities have opportunities to have a metro which talks about transit oriented development. and like anchor institutions like hopkins state university. i think what we have to do is understand and know all the wrong and issues from their policies and things have that have been piling on this community for decades, but also develop an action plan and game plan around some of the things that we know our interest is usually get you through we know -- that we know in the

community. we know that we have the science and technology building, as well as the health and human services building right on north avenue. right now, we are working with neighborhood design centers. certain things like that that we need to continue to kind of build upon. identify the low hanging fruit and develop a real, true actionable plan in 18 -- an urban style setting. senator ben cardin: that is great. i thank you for that. i really do think you have to build on your strengths. there is a lot of strong anchor facilities that are in this community that we need to build on and improve that and use that as leverage to deal with areas where we have weaknesses. not having a food store is unacceptable. to have to spend $15 for a round-trip in order to go to your grocery bill is ridiculous.

>> senator, we talk about a food desert, we are in a recreational desert. you look at the quality of recreational centers in this area, this is something that we have known that folks continue to fight for. but there needs to be a premier quality recreational facility in central west baltimore. you look at the statistics of the number of children in this area, and all directly ties to the ability of having opportunities of doing other things. a premier quality recreational facility is sorely needed and central west baltimore. senator ben cardin: i think we have some people here that are involved in recreation. so, where do you -- where do your people play? >> so, -- senator ben cardin: tell me what you do first. >> my name is michael. i am the head baseball coach at the technical high school. and we don't -- we don't have a

baseball field. and so we have practiced at nearby easterwood park, which is across the street from carver. and as part of the baseball program, we have one of our alumni here. he played for the 2012 carver baseball team. the way we set the program up is really to empower the students to address some of these challenges. so applying the skills they are letting to address these challenges. so for easterwood park, for example, we went to the process of engaging the community to see if that is a potential solution to build a baseball field. and through that process, we realized it wasn't the right design, but we still were able to address the fact that the journey of our city girls team at carver doesn't have a field so we were able to collaborate with the community and build a softball field. and there is another diamond area -- we made a little league

field to help serve the historic little league in the neighborhood. so we have learned from that experience. we are still trying to ultimately build a baseball field. and -- so we are continuing to engage the community and try to find green space or space that has been vacated to pursue this as something that we can address not only for carver, but it would also help james moser, for example, they have two beautiful fields. when those kids turn 13, they were not of places to play. so we talk about not having adequate places, west baltimore does not have a baseball field. and you have the university, they have a division i baseball team and they don't have a baseball field. so i think -- you know -- we

talk a lot about food and health, and i think it is a metaphor for the inequality that we have here in west baltimore. >> senator, i wanted to try and hit education, but you need to know the oldest continuous predominantly african-american baseball team or children is here. we literally have 16 baseball fields in west baltimore. not baltimore city, just in west baltimore. but you can't play on it because the grass is two feet, three feet high. they have what is called backstops. those are the metal facilities behind. it is not that we necessarily don't have -- we have the space. it is not maintained. but i didn't want us to get away from what matthew henson neighborhood considers to be most important, and that is our children. we have our first principle here.

they have something that we feel are imperative to help them continue teaching our scholars that we have here. when you look at the fact that our classes are so large, it is a wonder that they are doing the vehicles they are doing. i want to turn it over, if i could, and let her italy share with the school feels they need that they are not getting. >> good evening. doc is absolutely correct. when we think about technology, we are starting -- we are now in the eight of taking a puck assessment and doing everything on the computer. we have to strategically plan how we are going to find the time to assess all students -- all of our students because we have computers that are outdated. we have to go in before each lesson to see how many are

actually going to be working on a given date because they are so old. it has taken us probably two weeks longer than it should to give assessment because there aren't computers in each classroom. some days, they are all working. there are probably about 30 computers in the room. and someday, we are lucky if we have 20 of them working. not to mention, we don't have central air in the building. >> [indiscernible] >> well, we have maybe one or two in each of the classrooms. not all working. realistically, we depend on that computer lab as far as technology. we have 300 -- about 387 students total. senator ben cardin: and tell me about the class size. >> the class sizes are extremely large. we have two teachers on each level and we have 30 plus and most of our classes. i think with the exception of grade five.

it is about 25, 26 there. our pre-k and k teachers, we can't afford to pay for teachers because most of our money does go to staffing. so we don't have a lot of money for other supplies. what we have done to sort of supplements that is to hire temps because it comes down to where do you put this extra teacher because all of the classes are so large. so we figured we would start at the molding years. so we do have temps there. another issue that we are finding -- senator ben cardin: so these are assistance. >> well, yes, you can call them assistance -- assistants. also, we don't have afterschool programs. senator ben cardin: if you had money for your afterschool programs, tell me what that would mean. >> we need intervention. we have a lot of our

>> we need interventions. we have a lot of students reading -- not rating on grade level paragraph is not number is anymore. they have to read in math and solve problems. we do not have money to hire the intervention teachers during the day as we once did. luckily, we have a good staff that does contribute and give their time after school for free. they are tutoring students after school. we're using materials that are probably outdated. teachers are relying on free items on the computer. so we are in the need of afterschool programs. then our students do not have anywhere to go. >> i was going to ask you. i take it they come from families where parent or parents are working. >> some peer that is the instance with some of our students. up the street, some of our

students, it is a three room facility. when i leave here in the evening, sometimes, it is late and we have six or seven euros out in dark riding bikes up the street because they have nowhere to go. we are in dire need of afterschool programs, funding for afterschool programs. >> that is money well invested. their efforts being made nationally to increase afterschool funding issues. i know the city is strapped for funds. a lot of the money comes through the state. we know the problems with general summary and getting extra money for the city. there is no question this is challenging. i think your teachers for being willing to stay later and help. >> i really feel technology would lay an important part considering the class-size is. -- sizes.

if we have the computers come at least that would be an area in the classroom for small group to practice. senator cardin: i agree with the priority. my talk -- top priority would be school spirit all those issues to keep them busy and out of trouble. it gives them the opportunity to get the skills they need to advance. that timmy me has to be the highest priority. for the neighborhood to grow and be strong, you have to have local businesses. elena is here from the business administration. we spoke before.

they have been here from day one since the problems. i really do want to thank maria, the administrator of the small business administration. she has been to the neighborhood and walked the streets here. she is committed to finding ways to help this this is. most of their tools are loans. a lot of businesses cannot afford loans and i understand that. you do not have the time to figure out where they do this. they brought the center to you. the center is at the library or you can get the information you need, fill out the work, and people will help you. so we have come to the neighborhood. there were 14 businesses that were damaged by the on rest. -- the unrest. it is horrible and it affects a lot of people in the community. we have at least one business owner here. >> we are happy to have the owner of oxford liquors

supported. our friend here is. he is one of the businesses still try and to get things put back in. we would love for our friend to introduce himself. seated next to the lady for those stores not open, i was physically stapling them on the door. fortunately, he had taken down from his torpedoes putting it down the door handle and he saw it come out. we are honored. please share any of your concerns and thoughts. >> first of all, i am honored to have you here.

i just took over a business before. i am so sad. right now, i faced -- it is not a big deal. i am asking -- you have a lot of

things to do, focus on the elementary school first. senator cardin: thank you for saying that it i believe the children have to be our top priority and agree with the neighbor to -- neighborhood leaders. we want them to be able to do well in our community. we really need to reach out. i have talked to some of our federal partners and agencies as to how we can get food stores located in underserved areas how we can get health clinics in underserved areas and rec centers in underserved areas.

you do not have to go elsewhere to get those. all the businesses benefited from the community and that is how the community gets stronger. boarded up housing does not help. we also have to deal with the housing issue here and we spoke with secretary castro, the secretary of housing and urban development, about what we could do in that regard. he has been helpful to us. a lot of these issues, i think we could tell you, a lot of these are local. the city has to take care of the schools, or the state, the state has to take care of housing. we are all in this together. we are not trying to bounce from one level of government. we are all china figure this out here at mick has the hardest job because he cannot turn anyone else. the federal government can push things on the state and the counties can push things on municipalities. when you're in the city, you are the backstop, the last level of

what can be done. we all want to be in this together. what you're telling me here is very helpful in your priorities. i've made a list. one thing we will try to do, i will try to explain this. it came out in one of our meetings. we do not want to miss, i love the comment you made. you do not want to miss a crisis. we have opportunities now that we did not have before. let's take advantage of those opportunities. then we need to have the metrics to evaluate whether we have done things right. we have got to have some way to judge. one way we judge is how many children are active. that is a good metric. to see where they are.

athletic programs, helping the community do their work. that is something we can try to figure out. other metrics, do we add the diversity in our business establishments? a pharmacist, a food store, fresh produce. that is what you have in the community. matt is a metric. when it is all said and done had we accomplish those goals. the schools are oh is a challenge, but it has to be the highest priority. it looks like it when you are looking at what you have in your pre-k, we will have a more difficult problem on class-size. >> l want to hit on a couple

more things. housing, 39%. compared to 11%. in baltimore city, almost triple the numbers. the housing issue is another issue. vacant houses in our neighborhood. we averaged somewhere between eight and 11 boarded-up houses in every block. not a week goes by, drug dealers not confiscating the houses. we had one two days ago.

i do not want to get off on an education issue. my family has dealt with libraries since the lawsuit. my aunt was the one because they were not allowing african-americans to manage. i am so committed to libraries that what we have upstairs is a collection of books. it is not a library. i've chosen for them to be as educated as they need to be. they not only have access to a we do not have, but they need to be able to have books and libraries that are updated, that are in so many different areas, they should be a. -- able to pick up something to help them. we need a state-of-the-art library. my family grew up in libraries.

this event we have august 1 attempts to address all the negatives reported for two negative reports from 2008 2 2011. the data is there. it is just coming up in finding solutions to these problems. i wanted residents to speak up about the challenges they have been having. we have in getting all kinds of excuses. if we go today, we will see police lighting. senator cardin: that is been the failure of the facility company. marvin: cities play facilities and facilities blame the city.

15, 16, 1700 blocks, lights on and off. 16, 1700 block of smallwood lights on and off. senator cardin: these are public, not private lights? you're talking about the streetlights? marvin: first flight went out midnight. the next one went out around the 15th. they told us it would be 21 days and that would have been yesterday. senator cardin: did they tell you the problem? >> first, they did not know. what they have done, the hardwired about four lights. otherwise, we had no lights. we had the police lights, one on baker. it is from last thursday, walked away. senator cardin: it is not only

dangerous the way they did it, it is wasteful and it makes no sense. we will check that out. we will have our staff work with the councilman. marvin: they have never been on. senator cardin: that seems like something we can get solved. >> the issue of losing clutch or houses in the 1700 block of smallwood, it points to a couple of issues. within two days. they were burnt, to liberty -- deliberately. individual who i guess i have got to be honest, he has got an illegal carwash is working. we have neighbors ready to indicate that at least one saw

him pouring the gasoline on the porch and then four houses burned. it not only toward -- point out problems we had we have a serious mental health issue in the community. we also look the other way. we are about mothers and fathers and sons and daughters. they say to somebody not us. it is us. we have to admit we have a serious health problem. we have far too many former sex offenders in the neighborhood. we have the pictures of them in the address they live. all of us have to share in the good, bad, and not so good. certain are overburdened by what they share with all of us. the numbers are enormous. we had three communities come and meet where we would share

what we had. there all around the elementary school. senator cardin: tell me about your relationship with the district, the police. marvin: we just met last evening with a private meaning they attended -- attempted to have. one decided to were three or four of them would meet privately with the new head of the western district. the western district is looking at the data, the toughest district in the city of baltimore. we have had 729 of the western district in the last it were nine years. it is like one every other year. we have not had a representative of the west and district on the civilian review board. prison had not been to a meeting in five years.

number nine since september of last year. senator cardin: there is a lot to be said about knowing the problems of your community, and then working with law enforcement, police, the state's attorney, local officials, to do with the safety and community as a team effort. you have to first understand the challenges you have it we know we have drugs, we understand that. there is not a neighborhood anywhere in this country that does not have a joke problem here that is not unique. but we know we have a drug problem to we know we have to do with the drug problem. if we have other areas of major concern, we need to know about it. there has to be a common understanding between the community and the police, and then we work with law enforcement, the state's attorney's office. we work with the council and the state to develop a strategy to keep communities safe, working with the community spirit that has not been done.

this community has a great history of working directly with the police. when he fell out, what is the name of the form? watch form that neighbors can fill out so that when they call the police, they do not have to give address or phone number. to get the crown watch number. our neighbors have been filling this form out since september of last year. we have not gotten one process. the police is blaming the computer system with the city. we have done this month after month. in a meeting last evening, even the head of our police community relations trying to make an excuse. to us, it is not excusable. what computer problem do you have that you cannot resolve from september? we have, i would say 60 or 70 residents filling out the form and the forms have not been processed. they are reluctant, which we understand, to call.

we were in a meeting together. we get the calls at three clock or 4:00 in the morning. the neighbors call us and we have to use our number to get to the police. the police department in the city of baltimore have some kind of computer problem. they cannot process the form. >> it is across the entire city and it is not a police issue. it is the mayor's office of technology. they handle 911 but also the watch number. they have not been able to. senator cardin: we are working in cooperation with the city to identify ways to adjust the issues we have. we're doing it in a manner, not in a confrontational manner with baltimore. we do not want this to be confrontational. doing it in a way for results so we can improve the police in baltimore, particularly with the

community, and then use that as a national model that can be used in other communities around the country. what is happening here in west baltimore is not unique, just to baltimore. it is happening all over the country. we are hopeful the process, and i know there will be, i know they started to make contact. they will be in the community. talk to the neighborhoods in a very frank way. there are fundamental problems we have got to figure out. i will absolutely make sure they are aware of the concerns that you have race. -- raised. who has not had a chance question mark yes, sir? >> thank you for coming. thank you for listening. we believe you will take our concerns and try to help us solve them. the violence affected all of us

deeply. it was just crazy. bottom line, i feel the biggest issue, one of the biggest issues in this community, is jobs. a lot of high unemployment. those who are employed are underemployed, very low wages. we can get more jobs and more job training, that would solve a lot of the other problems. we need jobs and job training. we have a lot of projects that come into construction, and other people coming in from long distances to do this work. we have people here who are qualified who can do the work. they are standing by and watching the people do this work. it is illegal number one and it is unfair and immoral that we have hundreds of thousands of

young people, men and women, who can do these jobs, and they are not given the chance. we need more minority jobs, more job training, more minority contrast. they need to be enforced. -- in force. that will solve a lot of problems. senator cardin: thank you. education is my number one priority, very related to my number two prop -- priority jobs. i agree with you. jobs give people dignity income, a reason to do better. but you have to have a job in order to do that. also when they're working, there are less likely to get into trouble. for our young people, you have jobs, particularly in the summertime. it may not pay a lot, but it gives them the training they need. it is what we need to do. so jobs, jobs, jobs, you are

correct. we have a lot of programs and we will try to focus those programs on communities such as baltimore. we have stones aimed at economic tools for businesses to locate and high unemployment areas such as this community. we have tax credits under the new markets being used widely in baltimore to create job opportunities. we need a transportation bill. a lot of construction jobs. good jobs. let's get those jobs moving and hire people in the areas with the highest level of unemployment. i already mentioned earlier on the reentry, let's stop, check the box, have everybody have opportunities for job spirit not one of us has not had a second chance. let's stop denying people economic opportunities just because they happen to have made a mistake once in their life. we have got to change the whole metrics, but we have got to have more jobs here in this community.

you are absolutely correct about that. we have strategies to do it. let's get the metrics to see whether we deliver. >> senator back in september i believe of last year, the neighborhood association had a press conference and we called for a u.s. congressional hearing on heroin. i would say seven of us community presidents around the area all agreed heroin had spiked up again. we could go right now three blocks down the street. i could take five minutes and come back and buy you some of the purest heroine state of maryland has. we were asked and i did testify for the government passes task force dealing with heroin. county after county after county said one thing that is a little different, that baltimore is different from the other county

the overwhelming majority of those individuals who basically indicated they started on heroin indicated they bought it here in baltimore. there is no reason why there can't be a major task force to stop what is actually in broad daylight. we could go right now to baker and appleton bigger and munro, and you can buy heroin, a thing you think you want as a drug. you do not even have to ask for it. they will tell you what they are selling. this is every day. we are saying it should not take the governor to have his relative lose his or her life as a result of heroin and some other type of drug, for this to become again an epidemic we have been saying since september this thing is out of hand. it is our seniors, our seniors are actually buying the drugs.

the 17-year-olds and 18-year-olds selling it on bikes , walking impaired we have a place here, munro and baker. one plus one. we were happy face to one of our leaders, who suggested you have got to put a camera inside and outside because they drive up they sell the drugs in broad daylight. we do not know whether or not it is a slow down or how did they say laugh evening in the meeting, they were giving us a breather. that was said from robert coleman, one of the representatives. the police told them they were giving our communities a breather. that is why we're not seeing police. we do not want to ask for another state of emergency, but it is clear we need more than what we are getting, that the neighbors are fearful, they are seen every day in front of their

eyes and the police department is not within walking distance. senator cardin: let me group you completely on the heroin drug issue. 24 jurisdictions in maryland. i've been all 24. heroin is mentioned to me and everyone of our political jurisdictions as a problem. the number of deaths related to heroin overdose increased dramatically in all parts of our state. it is a crisis in baltimore city, but also in baltimore county. also a crisis in anne arundel county, howard county, in every county in our state. we need a copper has of way to deal with it. we said this before. we have not done it. it is not just a maryland problem. it is a national problem. it really does mean much tougher on the supplies, but also dealing with the demand you have got to do with both sides of it. i demand strategies have never

worked. you need to take a new approach is on the demand side. that requires that we do not need to lock people up who are users. we need to help them with treatment. i want to bring to your attention, not too far from here you mentioned mental health services. not too far from here, there is a place called mosaic that opened a couple of weeks ago. it survived the rights. no damage was done to it. it had not quite opened. it was just about ready to open. it was located on charles new 22nd? around there. it is a mental health addiction center. it gets many referrals through the criminal justice system. it is doing incredibly effective work. we need five more of those. i invite you to go by and take a

look at it and talk to the people behind it. they're touching people's lives, turning people around. you know, you have got to start someplace. it is a big problem. you have got to start someplace where it let's see whether we can't get a mosaic take -- type program in our community so we have a place where we can help those who have addiction problems, so they know there are people on their side. at the same time, let's work to make sure the people showing on the streets cannot do that the way they are doing it. let's make sure it will be tough to stop the demand side of the equation. i think we can make progress here. i really do peer we cannot give in on this. it has got to start neighborhood by neighborhood. i will work with you on it. the a little issue but a big issue, we last year adopted a lot.

the lot, and only before the grass got cut, the question would be, would it be six feet tall or seven feet tall before they cut it. how many pieces of furniture would we find in that lot once we found the grass cut down? ironically, we are the three senior citizens that actually cut the grass. we see -- the mere fact we cut that lot every week, the neighbors respected and love it. i can tell they are picking up the trash when we don't. we would like to, and he is older than we are, he looks good, but he is older, we would like to acquire at least two if not three more lots. we see the positive impact it

has on neighbors. the neighbors are proud of it. it little over $2000 to build big signs that say, welcome. the neighbors are proud of it. senator cardin: once you get these lots -- marvin: we already got them but here's what we need. we need a sitdown mower. we old guys cannot be cutting all this grass. the one we have is one, we have two lawnmowers. they wanted to transfer and wanted to give us a lawnmower. there is no way physically we guys would be able to keep living. >> we have got to find you one. i'm sure there are those out there. marvin: i know it sounds small but it is big. senator cardin: who else? >> i live here in the community. i heard about the elementary

school. i would like to plug the high school where i graduated from. there are students down there into the vocational part. they need help in certain areas. i know they have taken away auto mechanic. some auto areas. they need to be looked at to upgrade that school concerning the technology as well. at the elementary school. we get students from carver from all over the city. please do not forget that. senator cardin: i agree with you and i'm a strong proponent of the technical education and what we're trying to do, and i have

is any high schools that have programs from college to the trades, all under the same roof doing it very effectively. we want children to reach maximum potential and what they want to do. we need people trained in the trades, desperately. we want them to be part of our high school opportunities. so yes, we agree completely. good jobs out there and we are working with trade unions in these areas. cities have some programs they're dealing with and i agree with you here this needs to be a continued priority. >> ballpark, it looks like we could be doing a better job. i will take that back. yes. how are you? >> thank you. i was around the corner. i got lost twice.

senator cardin: i'm sorry about that. [laughter] people should know no one will ever confuse reverend william not active in our committee could i seen him in every meeting. >> i am glad. i first want to complement you for the racial profiling bill and i am working closely with mothers against violence and brutality. of course we are working in green month, rosemont, all over the area. i am happy about the new approach. that is where my heart is at. of course, the gang banging. what about recreation?

i am working hard on the issue. brothers are down getting us fired. the city is on the way to hell and i'm trying to get each church to adopt a corner. drug activities festering where they hang out with and find a vacancy of property already done as you know, renovate that vacant lot and turn it into a safe haven because the city will not provide recreation in the community organization, then the church committee ought to. the most active and established institution in the neighborhood. would you feel about this, and i want to end on this, an emergency meeting tuesday calling all clergy to come out

and see what they can do as a community. i was glad to know jamaal is finally getting a great issue -- gray issue, dealing with homicides we had last month and the five homicides and 115 homicides we have had this year. i know your heart is on it. senator cardin: it is a good point. let me summarize, let me tell you what i will take back to mike and our federal team and the mayor. from this discussion. that is, we have got to make progress. for this community, for the matthew henson neighborhood community, what i would like to see us do is deal with the issue you raised, willie. there are vacant lots here. it seems to me there are ways of converting those vacant lots

into a plus for the community, whether it is a ball field. let's see whether we cannot make pacific progress in that area. we want to have a food store here. we have got to work for a strategy and how we get a food store in this community. we want to do with a much better relationship between the police and the community so that they understand your concerns. you have expressed them today. and they can respond to that and develop a strategy so that the committee and the police are working together and not against each other. that when you see a police officer in the community, you are happy and not scared. we have got to make that happen. we have got to make that real. that is important. part of that is to deal with what i think is the number one problem. you reinforced that. that is harrowing drugs. therefore, how can we deal with the heroine drug?

see if we can get help from the community to deal with those using drugs and get those selling drugs, to let them know they are not welcome here. they will work to make sure that does not happen. by only us, the number one priority, and perhaps the most difficult, because there are so many schools in so many communities that one more resources, we have got to put priority on our schools. we need better equipment smaller class-size computers children are just sponges. they absorb things. but you have got to be able to give them things. let's remember that our children are our priority. they are our future. let's work on that pretty mentioned many other issues. i will not mean to say i will not take all of them black -- all of them back. i got all the issues you talked about.

we will take all of them back. marvin: churches. they are not active in this neighborhood. senator cardin: we will work with the leaders. they are part of our team. marvin: they need a boost. senator cardin: my key contact on that. marvin: he is my man. >> i am with the committee development corporation. the community development clergy caucus. we will be having a resource fair in henson on june 13. senator cardin: good. >> to bring job training, and other services needed in this community. we have a job center and a lot

of people are overwhelmed to go up there and use those services per we need to bring those services directly to the residents in the community. if they can be a part of what is going on. >> first and foremost, thank you, senator for coming out. you are not just here to listen, but to listen and take notes and that is the type of leadership you have all had and we truly appreciate it. to the community, i think you -- thank you for your tireless effort. your issues are not unique to this. however, you have not decided to allow it to become normalized. you decided to speak up with a strong voice and continuously speak up. so i thank you for that. many of these things are great

and i will get back to my point earlier that we have a tremendous amount of assets resources, history and culture in the rear we can build upon. if we could come up with a realistic plan to identify low hanging fruit and things we could hit off and identify some long pull in a tent i don't to develop a plan to get torts, we can see that growth and development of improvement with again your leadership, this community, and all that the community currently has. thank you for coming out and thank you for a you do on a regular basis. i found to share some of our time spirit we thank you so much for being here. >> one comment i found. i found baltimore to be a beautiful city. it has a lot of positive things. we would like to encourage the remainder of businesses to come to the pennsylvania library and apply for a alone.

i know it seems like a loan may not be of help you but i have been in many disasters and found those disaster loans do work. you can recover, you can rebuild with the disaster loans. please come in and sit down with our people and we will help you through the process and help people who have had is this is damaged to recover. you will recovery of your business or qualifies for one. another note. library taking applications. we have had 17-year-olds and 19-year-olds come in or ask -- to ask about entrepreneurship. i found that amazing and we directed them to the other side who could help them with establishing loans. i am not quite sure but the 17-year-old, but the 19-year-old is an adult. it is good you have people that young interested in entrepreneurship.

i would like to encourage you to encourage everyone to come to the table and see if they can help them decide if they have capital assess -- access. we've many people interested in exploring businesses right in the committee. we direct them to some of the items our administrator mentioned. senator cardin: the administrator has made funds available to our region for counseling, mentoring, helping businesses get started, helping out people at entrepreneurship, and she has made those funds available for our region. we have opportunities to we talked about opportunities for young people. there are opportunities out there. going to the library and get the information and we will absolutely follow up on it. marvin: on behalf of the neighborhood association, on behalf of matthew henson elementary school, we cannot thank you enough. you can be the squeaky wheel, but the question is, did anybody here it?

it is clear you heard it and we cannot thank you enough. initially, we would think about trying to do a walk. i think this discussion has been so extensive, i do not really see a great need. it is clear your staff simply has a campbell -- a handle on what problems we have. we are trying to do as much as we can to not only address our problems, but we try our -- almost every month to do something with the other communities. we had a kwanzaa event. all the neighbors in the area and the surrounding areas were invited. we have taken kids from all the neighborhoods around, we take the kids to the baseball game spirit matthew henson does this. we try to be as inclusive as we can. we will be the organization that will speak out when others are afraid. we will say we put our children and our community first. we would take on anybody to do

what we think is in our best interest. we need services here that many communities have that we don't. when you name something, it is not here. pharmacy, do not have it. we have no state, federal, or city office anywhere in here. we need services. we document things, we do really well at documenting. but we cannot thank you enough, but please put our school and our children first. we want to be some are close right behind them. we cannot thank you enough. thank you so much. [applause] senator cardin: thank you all. thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] huey long: they are different. he said that is made from the bark off the tree that we pick

from the top down. that made from the bark that we take from the root up. [laughter] and the only difference i have found between the democratic leadership and the republican leadership was that one of them -- when i got to congress. >> he was one of the great populists in that clip was an example of appealing to the masses with a good yarn. ultimately i think like a lot of characters, he became -- with his own power and was consumed by that. >> huey long was a maverick. he gave just as much greek -- grief to his own leadership. quite the city has no needed some mavericks. they keep the institutions

bubbling. if they were all mavericks nothing would get done. we are fortunate to some degree huey long is in the distinct minority. >> done ritche and ray smock on the history of house and senate, it's characters and scandals, tonight on c-span's "q and day. -- "q&a." >> on tuesday these remarks were made at a house transportation and infrastructure committee hearing on the recent amtrak train derailment in philadelphia. this is just over three hours. >> the committee will come to order. today's hearing will focus on the tragic amtrak accident that occurred philadelphia on may 17th. we have all heard some of the preliminary information surrounding this terrible event. an amtrak northeast regional

train en route from washington to new york derailed on a curve in philadelphia. the national transportation safety board has reported that the train was traveling at 106 miles per hour despite a 50 50-mile-per-hour speed limit on that portion of the track. eight passengers tragically lost their lives and approximately 200 were injured. we were not aware of any defects or issues identified to date with respect to the track, the locomotive or other infrastructure. today we will get an update from the ntsb on where their investigation stands and any additional information they can provide on the cause of this accident. since the accident, the federal railroad administration and amtrak have taken several steps to improve safety along the northeast corridor. amtrak is assessing the curves along the nec to determine if additional speed restrictions should be imposed and amtrak has announced it will be installing inward facing cameras to gain a

better understanding of how incidents occur, and they've also committed to finish implementation of positive train control on the northeast corridor by december of this year. today i want to review what actions amtrak took on passenger rail safety before this accident and particularly why fra didn't mandate the review of severe curves sooner. finally this accident heighted the central role of the northeast corridor plays in moving people along the northeast coast. the nec represents 2% of the nation's land mass and 18% of the population and the gdp. hundreds of people use the corridor daily to get to work and travel between some of our largest cities. when the corridor is out for just several days there is a real and significant impact on people's lives and the economy. this committee is committed to focusing resources and improving the northeast corridor including in the bipartisan amtrak reform bill that passed the house just a few months ago.